Anti-Virus - is it worth it?

http://free.avg.com/

Anti-virus is for dumb people. Unless you're going to shady-ass porn sites on the regular, installing every single program advertised to you in pop-ups, and downloading the first search result in Limewire like it's your job, you have nothing to fear from viruses.

www.get-a-virus-here.com

go there.
great virus protection software.

it depends, dont open emails that are sketchy (or just use a good email service like gmail that filters all your spam). If your installing alot of free programs, you might need it.

I think in the long run it is worth it.  When you get a newish computer you don't really see the effects of viral/mal-ware but after a few years it sorta builds up on you and sooner or later its gonna really fuck up your computer. This has happened to me a few times.

Theres a bunch of good free anti-viral programs out there, i think someone mentionted AVG which is pretty good. Personally i use Kaspersky Internet Secruity 2009 and Sygate Firewall. Its really great because both programs regularly detect intrusions that windows will never ever pick up on. Also Sygate Firewall is nice because you can dictate what apps get to connect to the internet (i.e. annoying updaters from itunes, adobe, etec.)

Haha are you seriously asking if an anti-virus is worth it? Of course it is! You really have to have one nowadays, you can get a virus anywhere.

And if you're wondering, look at http://www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php#firewalls-ratings.

They have all of the best firewall ratings. Whats even better, is one of the best rated firewalls and antivirus is Comodo, which is completely free.

Are you seriously saying anti-virus is even remotely necessary? You have to manually OK the install of a virus. You have to, that's why they're always disguised (poorly). So unless you're fucking retarded and you love opening e-mail attachments from sketchy people you don't know almost as much as you like installing pop-up software and downloading 112KB songs off of LimeWire, you don't need one. My old laptop never had any problems for two and a half years, all I had to do was some occasional some basic clean up and it ran like a dream. I was on it a lot too. This one has been issue and slowdown free for six months now without any protection software.

The shit that "builds up" and slows your system down is spyware, not viruses. All you have to avoid that is A) Use Firefox B) Use NoScript and C) Use Spybot/Ad-Aware every so often. Virus protection? For real? Such a waste of system resources...

avg or avast

that's all you need to know

If you want your computer to be truly protected, then you want an anti-virus. The best programs (I use Comodo or Kaspersky) have full internet security packages that use little system resources. Having full malware, spyware and virus protection is a good idea. Especially if you are doing alot of downloading, like music and the like, which almost everyone of this age does.

my vote is for avast

Well, I guess if you want your computer to be truly protected then you're right... I'm arguing that you don't need your computer to be fully protected. Use torrents for your downloading, only get ones that are given the OK by other users and check the files before you download... it's not hard to avoid viruses. In fact it's mind-numbingly easy. Even my relatively computer illiterate family has no issues sans virus protection. Don't go to sketchy sites. Don't download and install shit unless you know what it is and who it's from. That simple.

Viruses are constantly updated so even with software you aren't protected at all times, so it's better to just... you know, not be a dumbass. Spyware and shit is impossible to avoid but easy to remove with a couple programs that don't need to be running constantly like Spybot S&D. I donno man, I'm on my computer way too much, and if I'm on it I'm downloading shit. If I'm not on it I'm usually downloading shit too. Never had a problem. Ever. Seems like a waste to me.

I don't know if  "Anti-Virus" software is worth it, but i think that anti spyware and anti malware are definitly worth it, i personally use threatfire and superantispyware in conjunction. (Both free)